Deion Sanders Gives Colorado Players Rare Access To His Texas Ranch

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This week, Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders hosted a leadership retreat at his Texas ranch. Around 20 players from the Buffaloes team were there. This provided a good opportunity for these teammates to build chemistry with each other as the season approaches.
Coach Prime Hosts Retreat at Texas Ranch

Coach Prime hosting members of his team could further bond the group together as a lot of them have not played with one another before.
👀The Coach Prime retreat is being hosted at Coach’s Texas ranch, this year . Love seeing all of the players . Can’t wait to watch well off 😁
— Change7he Narrative (@change7he68182) June 28, 2026
📸 @DeionSandersJr @DeionSanders @CUBuffsFootball pic.twitter.com/k6G9DeAyzN
A challenge in this new day in age of college football with NIL and the transfer portal is being able to mesh a roster together. There are so many moving pieces from year to year with roster turnover as prominent as it has ever been. Having a team gel both on and off the field is extremely important.
Colorado's 2026 team currently has 43 incoming players from the transfer portal this offseason per Rivals. This is a staggering amount. The Buffs also have numerous incoming high school recruits so the team on the field this season will look completely different from the 2025 team.
Part of the reason for these big changes were because of Colorado's struggles on the field. The Buffs went 3-9 in 2025, missing a bowl game for the second time in three seasons under Sanders. Sanders is now entering year four as coach in Boulder and has a record of 16-21.

Colorado hired a new offensive and defensive coordinator this offseason.
The Buffs made the move to acquire former Sacramento State Hornets coach Brennan Marion as offensive coordinator. Marion spent one season as the Hornets coach, leading them to a 7-5 record in 2025. He is known for his go-go offense that features and up-tempo style with the quarterback primarily in the shotgun along side multiple running backs.
Colorado's offense never got in a rythym last season and Marion was brought in to help change that.
On the defensive side of the ball, Colorado hired Chris Marve. Marve was originally hired by Coach Prime to be Colorado's linebackers coach this offseason, but things changed after former Buffs defensive coordinator Robert Livingston left to take a coaching job with the Denver Broncos.
Sanders promoted Marve to defensive coordinator without him coaching a single game as Colorado linebackers coach. Marve has experience in this position from his time as the Virginia Tech defensive coordinator from 2022-2024.

The Buffaloes starting quarterback when the season kicks off appears to be redshirt freshman Julian Lewis. Lewis played in four games for the Buffs as a true freshman last season. He threw for 589 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
The oddsmakers do not like Colorado's changes to bounce back this season. DraftKings Sportsbook has Colorado's win total at 4.5 with odds of +134 on the over and -160 on the under.
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Cory Pappas is sports writer for USC Trojans On SI, Oregon Ducks On SI and Colorado Buffaloes on SI. Since starting in March of 2024, he has been writing breaking news stories, game previews, game recaps, and more across College Sports, the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Olympics for Total Apex Sports. In addition to writing, Cory is also a sports data scout for Sportradar. He covers live sporting events ranging from college athletics to semi-pro and professional. Before joining the industry, Cory graduated from the University of Oregon in 2022. He ran track for Oregon's club Track and Field team. Before Oregon, he played varsity basketball and track and field in high school in Walnut Creek, CA. Cory is using his lifelong passion for sports and writing together.
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